1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of amusement devices and games; more specifically, this invention is in the field of exercising devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many ways known for exercising muscles in the human body. The most obvious is that of whole-body exercise, such as jogging or distance running, swimming and competitive sports of many kinds. There are, however, cases where it is necessary or desirable to develop a specific set of muscles, such as, e.g., restoration of tone to an arm muscle after prolonged idleness. This could occur, for instance, where a fractured ulna requires a splint and immobilization of the arm. In such a case, whole-body exercise would probably not be the best way to improve the muscle tone in a single muscle or related set.
Devices are known which provide limited exercise for portions of the body. For instance, Rhodes shows an arm-wrestling device in U.S. Pat. No. 3,743,284, and Walls describes an apparatus for exercising various muscles in U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,964. The device of Walls comprises a series of elastic ropes and handles to provide countervailing tension which enables the user to put strain on his muscles. In the Walls device specifically, the user goes through the motions of swinging or throwing, the muscles being opposed by elastic ropes of the device.